Historically, media content distribution systems that provided metadata relating to its distributed media content were typically limited to video distribution systems such as Cable Television (CATV), and Digital Broadcast Satellite (DBS) as well as a few, select terrestrial aerial broadcast systems. These video distribution systems typically incorporated the use of electronic program guides (EPGs) which were able to display informational media content metadata regarding current as well as upcoming video content from the video distribution system. The conventional EPG is basically a combination of all metadata associated with the available media content, which is organized for display to the user in an easily readable format on a display such as a television. Correspondingly, each instance of media content metadata is stored within a listing or record, wherein each listing details specific information about its associated video program. In turn, each listing contains a plurality of fields, each containing textual data and/or graphics of still images or movie trailers that provides useful information regarding the media content.
Nevertheless, many of today's media content distribution systems possess the capability of broadcasting metadata relating to various forms of media content that is distributed through its network. For example, broadcast distribution systems such as radio have implemented a radio data system (RDS) type protocol whereby metadata or other informational content relating to the currently aired program or song is displayed on a display for the user. This RDS protocol is implemented via a relatively small amount of bandwidth that is honed from the total bandwidth of the broadcasted audio signal and is transmitted alongside its associated radio program content. This relatively small bandwidth is adapted to convey metadata in the form of textual information for immediate display for the user. Throughout this specification, the term “bandwidth” is defined to mean a bit rate capacity of a predetermined transmission medium. Other forms of media content metadata that are not sent in-band with associated program content but are accessed independently include the Internet Movie Database (IMDb), and digital music metadata. This digital music metadata may contain information such as lyrics, composer, artist, and the like. Thus it may be seen that currently many different forms of content metadata are available and the media content distribution networks have the capability of broadcasting metadata which is informational to the consumer of its related media content. Media content metadata is defined within this specification to be any data such as text, sound file, movie trailer, box art, image, review, and the like that is associated with media content that can be streamed, transmitted via unicast IP, broadcasted, or played locally on an end user device. Moreover, throughout this specification, the term ‘broadcasting’ may include any known means of disseminating the metadata to one or more end user devices such as by multicasting, carouselling, and the like.
The early video distribution systems typically utilized an end user device such as a set top box (STB) that was capable of receiving media content and its associated metadata from the network and transforming these into commonly used ATSC, NTSC, PAL, or SECAM formatted signals for use by a display such as a television set. Nevertheless, burgeoning network topologies such as the Internet, cellular networks, satellite networks, wireless networks, and telephonic networks such as the public switched telephone network (PSTN) have enabled numerous types of end user devices to be capable of receipt and display of pertinent forms of media content metadata. There are an increasing array of devices that can access content today including traditional to very advanced STBs, televisions (TV), High Definition Televisions, (HDTVs), Super High Definition Televisions (SHDTV), other home appliances (such as refrigerators), mobile devices (cellular phones, personal data assistants, organizers, electronic calendars, hybrid phones, etc.), personal computers, laptops, game consoles, portable video units, and portable game consoles, wherein all such devices are defined as metadata aware devices due to their ability to receive and process incoming media content metadata.
Metadata generally contains information about the content that would allow the user or system to learn about the content without actually experiencing it. As described hereinabove, metadata also enables the generation of a table of upcoming or currently running media content to allow the user or system to view, record, or do something else with the content such as filter, ignore, or block it. Metadata may include comprehensive text about the media content including start time, stop time, program name, year released, theatrical rating, composer, artist, album, actors, directors, short description, long description, channel and the like, wherein there are dozens of such fields, all of which are well understood among guide data providers. Additionally, this metadata may contain other multimedia components of interest such as pictures, thumbnail images, file icons, game simulations, posters, theatrical trailers, box art (similar to packaged media art), content owner associated advertisements, content service provider associated advertisements, critic reviews, awards, and the like. While metadata is meant to be useful for individuals to know what programs are currently playing or will be playing in the near future, it is also useful for associated systems and applications used for automation, learning user interaction or habits and preference, or perhaps just providing additional information or guidance to the user. Such automated tasks include the blockage of all “R-Rated” media (content television, cable, radio programs, games, music, or art/images with mature ratings, extensions of parental control or identity management) or the recording of all instances of a particular program of interest. Without the availability of media content metadata, the aforedescribed automated features would be rendered essentially useless and the individual is forced to sample all available media content currently playing, or refer to some other piece of information such as a newspaper or some other distribution source or online guide to help them determine what types of media content are to be broadcasted.
A drawback regarding the usage of the aforedescribed media content metadata within media distribution systems is that the level of detail that each metadata record may contain is often times ill-suited for the end user device, which may use this data. In order to provide a thorough description of the media content event, providers of this metadata typically include more information than is necessary for the typical user. The negative ramifications of this modus operandi includes slow dissemination or carouselling of the metadata to the end user device, as well as superfluous usage of memory resources contained therein. While a number of methods currently exist to compress the metadata into a smaller entity that can be transmitted to the devices that require it, such methods assume that much of the available metadata available is required by the end user device. In fact, the most common model is to broadcast all available media content metadata down to the end user device and then let the metadata aware device filter what is needed regardless of its technical capabilities, bandwidth availability, or user preferences. This problem is exacerbated by the wide variety of metadata aware devices currently available in that each has differing capabilities relative to display size and resolution, as well as computer processing capabilities, all of which directly impact the level of detail of each metadata record that may optimally be used thereby.
Another drawback to currently available metadata is that metadata which is pertinent to a particular instance of media content typically doesn't reside within a single authoritative source. That is, content metadata originating from multiple metadata providers may represent a complete set of all available metadata which may be available for a particular instance of media content; however, the obtainment of such a complete set by one particular end user device has heretofore been inaccessible.
Current implementations of content metadata distribution systems have been principally adapted for use with end user devices having generally standardized display capabilities. For example, a metadata distribution system which is adapted for display of metadata on a conventional television would be substantially ill-suited for display upon a typical mobile device such as a cellular telephone. This is due to the fact that mobile devices have displays which are significantly smaller than a television screen and thus are not adapted for display of the relatively large amount of information in a similar manner thereto. What has been missing in the art is the ability to associate the relative amount of metadata that is transmitted to an end user device that is commensurate with the end user device's ability to display that metadata in an intelligible manner.
There is also an increasing issue relative to mobility. As metadata aware devices increasingly are made to roam beyond their original installed location, desirable features such as transportability, interoperability, and self-discovering capabilities become increasingly valuable. For example, if a metadata aware device roams from its usual location within an individual's home to another city, its owner may want the option to either experience content similar to their home base, see what content is available locally, or perhaps even experience a combination of the two. Regardless, the need for metadata handling capabilities in mobile devices from differing geographic locations is on the rise.
Finally an issue regarding the convergence of technologies will be noted. A single end user device may be a music player, interactive video player, smart phone, remote control, digital video recorder (DVR), computer, game console, organizer, and the like, wherein such convergence of either of these devices to another possesses serious implications on the metadata needs as well as capabilities of such a device that are not addressed by heretofore known metadata distribution systems.
A metadata feed is defined as one or more files containing data representative of content that is available to end user devices. The data within the feed may consist of records, each having one or more fields of textual or multimedia information, which could be represented in many different formats including ASCII, binary, etc. and is typically transmitted separately from the content that it represents as an in-band signal or an out-of-band signal.